School's OUT...

 ...for the SUMMER! 

Whew! I'm not gonna lie, this year has been rough! Between being pregnant for the first half of the year and practically bed ridden for the last two months of the pregnancy, and then having a newborn for this last half of the year I was so ready to be DONE! 

I had to take a picture of the crayon box the other day because it was the perfect metaphor for how I felt. At the beginning of the year it was crisp and clean, all the perfectly pointed crayons were lined up in a row. By the end of the year it had tattered, crumpled edges, 1/3 of the crayons were missing, and the ones that were there were used, broken, and peeling. Haha :) 

I definitely feel like the girls got the short end of the stick this year. No field trips, no fun crafts or extended lessons. I was hanging on by the skin of my teeth and doing the minimum amount. :{ I guess that's how life goes sometime. I hope to make up for it next year! We started 10 days early last fall and tried to do at least one extra subject a day so even with taking 2 weeks off when Peaches was born we did still manage to finish early - for which I am very thankful! 

Here are a few of Boo's cutest assignments this year...

Sorry Karen, I was supposed to tear this out and mail it to you and apparently never did. It says, "To my friend Karen, On my birthday my sis was born. I opened presents in the the hospital. I had 4 extra hours of my birthday because my sis was born late. I stayed up till midnight. From S." :)

Another one I was supposed to tear out...this one says, "To Noni. Thank you for my birthday presents. I like the clothes. I love my necklace. Thank you for coming to my birthday party. I went to Build-A-Bear. Love, S

 "A newborn panda is about as big as a stick of butter."

And a self-portrait. :)

 

 Boo did a wonderful job this year! Unfortunately she really didn't learn a lot of new information...she pretty much knew everything they taught...but she did have a lot of reinforcement and has become a much more fluent reader.

Boo is my little sweetie pie. She very rarely has a bad attitude. She almost always did her work happily without a lot of re-direction. She was a great little student and I'm looking forward to a hopefully more scholastically-challenging year next year.

 

On to 1st grade!!!

Buggy has made huge strides in her ability to focus and stay on task! That being said we still had many days like this...

Lol! 

I can honestly say that we had more good days than bad this year though. She is maturing at her own pace and we're getting better about directing all that energy. 3rd grade was the most hands-off yet for me, as the Learning Coach. She could do almost all the subjects on her own, though I did try to be there as much as possible. 

Some days it was like pulling teeth to make it through her daily lessons, and other days she was up way before the rest of the family, snuck downstairs, got on the computer, and was 75% done with her day's work before the rest of us even started stirring! If only I could bottle that enthusiasm and pull it out when I needed it!

Buggy loves holding the baby while she works! Peaches doesn't look too impressed. :)

The girls worked really hard the last few weeks to get done! We finished up our units on Space (for Science) and The American Revolution (for History) and took Semester Assessments in all the subjects and then we were DONE!

Yippee! Here we come 4th grade!

Daddy was out of town for the day, but we wanted to celebrate so we walked down to get some lunch and ice cream!

Buggy loves to push Peaches in the stroller.

My little sidekick. It was definitely hard for her this year without Boo to play with! She would do great with workbooks or puzzles for a hour or so, but then get bored (aka: loud!) and I would have to ask her to go play on her own. Some days she would play happily by herself for hours and other days were a constant battle. Next year she'll be going to Preschool so I'm looking forward to three quieter mornings each week...although by then I'm sure Peaches will have started her own ways of distracting. Haha :)

 

 Overall I can say we had a good year, and we're still very happy with the K12 program. The girls had great teachers who were very sweet and helpful. They were also very understanding when we had to take some time off for the baby - not just the birth but doctor's appointments and such. I'm still very impressed with the K12 curriculum. I feel like our girls are getting a great education...I, myself, learn something new everyday! 

Yes, it's not easy to homeschool two with two little ones in the house, but I still think it is totally worth it. This is what I'm called to do right now, and I will continue to do it to the best of my ability until God tells me otherwise. And even though my girls can drive me crazy faster than I can blink, I am so thankful that I get to stay home with them and we can spend our days together. I wouldn't miss this extra time with them for anything! I love my crazies to pieces!

 

 That being said, I am so glad we're done! Bring on SUMMER!